In a summary of their most recent findings released on Wednesday, a team of international experts claimed that a high number of detainees held in makeshift detention centres in Russian-occupied southern Ukraine were tortured and sexually abused.
The international humanitarian law firm Global Rights Compliance developed the Mobile Justice Team, which has worked with Ukrainian war crimes prosecutors in the Kherson region since it was recaptured in November after more than eight months under Russian rule.
Ukrainian authorities are investigating over 97,000 reports of war crimes and have charged 220 people in domestic courts. High-level criminals could face trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in ‘The Hague’, which has already requested the arrest of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The Kremlin has persistently refuted charges of war crimes committed by personnel participating in a special military operation designed to de-Nazify Ukraine and safeguard Russia.
The newest study by the Mobile Justice Team, funded by the United Kingdom, the European Union, and the United States, examined 320 instances and witness testimony from 35 locations in the Kherson region.
According to the statement, 43% explicitly mentioned practices of torture in detention centres, citing sexual violence as a common tactic imposed on them by Russian guards.
In June, Ukrainian authorities charged a Russian politician and two suspected Ukrainian accomplices with war crimes in connection with the alleged deportation of dozens of orphans from Kherson.
They made no quick response to the latest torture revelations.
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